The collaborative effort of thirty-four zine-making parents, this fourth issue of Mamaphiles takes on the wilder side of parenthood – from toddler-chasing to rabble-rousing. “Children are natural born hell-raisers,” wrote Henry Miller. And as Mamaphiles’ writers can attest, raising them can be an act of revolution.

Raising Hell features stories of an activist family imprisoned in Israel and racial injustice in the U.S., as well as essays on the more quiet, inner struggles of parents striving to seek balance and creative expression, heal, make a family and support each other.

Mamaphiles was initially conceived in 2004 as a cooperative effort of the zine-writing mothers who congregated online at Mamaphonic.com. Thirty-three contributors took on the theme of “Birth” and the resulting 132-page zine proved so successful that two more issues were produced, Mamaphiles #2 “Cutting the Cord” and Mamaphiles #3 “Coming Home” .

Now, with Raising Hell, the Mamaphiles writers – each of whom produces a zine individually – have pooled their talent again to testify that while child-rearing may be hellish sometimes, it’s the most rewarding hell out there.

Mamaphiles is a non-profit project which strives to remain accessible to readers of all income levels/life circumstances. The cost of production, printing & postage comes to 5 dollars per copy. If you feel you can afford to give more than 5 dollars, please send what you feel is appropriate to support the project. If 5 dollars is out of your reach, talk to us.

This baby is ready to go! And will be headed out into the world as soon as we raise enough funds to pay for printing, so, my friends, pre-order your copy today!

WE NEED TO RAISE $900 dollars in 3 weeks to get our zine printed at http://www.1984printing.com/. (We have $750 already, the total to make 500 copies and ship is $1,650) When pre-ordering your copy, if you can donate any extra, 5, 10, 35 dollars, please do. WE CAN DO THIS!